|
 |
|
Medtrade 2005 Opens in Atlanta; VNU Moves 2006 Show Date
ATLANTA--When Medtrade opens its exhibit hall tomorrow, providers not only will be scouting the trade show floor for the latest home medical products but many also will be searching for answers on how to cope with Medicare's changing environment to keep their businesses going strong....
|
Apria Says OIG Report Is Just Plain Wrong
LAKE FOREST, Calif.--In a statement issued last Wednesday, Apria Healthcare Group responded to a recent HHS Office of Inspector General report on inhalation drug supplier services, saying the report is "fraught with inadequacies, both in terms of data collected and the study's broad-based erroneous conclusions."...
|
CCS and MP TotalCare Merge
NEW YORK--In a move that company officials tout as creating one of the country's largest providers of direct-to-consumer diabetes medical and other supplies, private equity firm Warburg Pincus has acquired Florida-based providers CCS Medical and MP TotalCare for approximately $630 million. ...
|
CMS: Accreditation to Begin With 10 MSAs
BALTIMORE--Mandatory accreditation for Medicare DME suppliers will start with the 10 metropolitan statistical areas where competitive bidding will take place in 2007, a CMS official said last week....
|
PAOC Meets Without Proposed NCB Rule
BALTIMORE--Because the proposed rule on national competitive bidding has yet to be released, the PAOC committee spent less time discussing details and more time listening to presentations from various HME stakeholders during its two-day meeting last week. ...
|
Government Reassigns Suspended CMS Medical Director
BALTIMORE--Sean Tunis, the CMS chief medical officer who was suspended earlier this year for falsifying documents, has been reassigned to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality as a biomedical research scientist....
|
DMERCs Release Draft Mobility LCD
BALTIMORE--After months of waiting for additional guidance on Medicare's power wheelchair and scooter coverage, the home medical equipment industry got what it was asking for when the DMERCs issued their draft LCD on Wednesday. But some stakeholders say their questions remain unanswered--and that the power mobility policy changes are too many and coming too fast for the industry to adjust....
|
CMS Changes Power Mobility Codes, Testing Requirements
BALTIMORE--In February, CMS unveiled a plan to implement 49 new power wheelchair and scooter codes--scheduled to take effect Jan. 1--that break down the broad K0011 code to specific configurations. But last week, the agency upped the number, announcing that the codes and testing standards need even more revisions to differentiate among some types of equipment. The first-of-the-year implementation date, however, remains....
|
RAMP: 'We Are Heading Towards a Train Wreck'
WASHINGTON--Following last week's Open Door Forum and release of the DMERCs' LCD on power mobility equipment, a strong response from the Restore Access to Mobility Partnership, an industry coalition of powered equipment manufacturers and providers, emphasized that the scheduled Oct. 25 implementation of CMS' new interim rule on power mobility should be delayed....
|
HHS to Coordinate Katrina HME Donations
WASHINGTON--Two weeks after Hurricane Katrina ravaged portions of the nation's southern shore, the home care community is still reaching out to help the storm's victims by donating time, money and services. Numerous manufacturers and providers have launched company relief efforts offering immediate shipment of equipment and supplies. ...
|
DOT Proposal Would Require Airlines to Provide Free Oxygen
WASHINGTON--A rule proposed last week by the Department of Transportation would require U.S. and foreign airlines operating to and from the United States to provide supplemental oxygen free of charge to patients in need. The proposed rule, published in the Sept. 7 Federal Register, would modify the Air Carrier Access Act of 1986, which prohibits discrimination in airline service on the basis of disability and would apply to all passenger carriers operating at least one aircraft with more than 60 seats....
|
NationsHealth Sells Respiratory Division to Lincare
SUNRISE, FLA.--NationsHealth announced last week it has sold its respiratory division to Clearwater, Fla.-based Lincare Holdings for $16 million in cash, and said it will transfer its respiratory patients and related inventory to Lincare. ...
|
HME Community Responds in Katrina's Wake
According to the Department of Homeland Security, federal disaster declarations now cover 90,000 square miles of U.S. coastal areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. In coordination with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is providing mass care to disaster victims at shelters and medical units across the Gulf Coast with distribution of needed food, water, medications and supplies. ...
|
For More Information and How You Can Help
An abbreviated list of hurricane Web sites, phone numbers and links to information from government agencies, AAHomecare, state associations, buying groups and charitable organizations follows. ...
|
| |
|
|
